The organising committee at Augusta National can breathe a sigh of relief. No longer will the Masters clash with the Scottish Boys' Championship.

For years, the national under-18s showpiece has been either the week before, the week of or the week after that wee gathering out in Georgia and the boys' matchplay event, particularly in the dewy, nostalgic eyes of the golf writers, has always been viewed as the traditional curtain-raiser to the domestic season. It was April, spring was in the air and folk were beginning to switch into golf again, despite a good chance of driving deluges, howling winds and the kind of bitter temperatures that could crack the rivets on the Antarctic Research Station. For a variety of reasons, ‘The Boys’, always generated decent coverage.

In 2017, though, the championship will be moved to a summer date in late June after Scottish Golf, the governing body, unveiled a series of dates and tweaks to a calendar which also sees the Scottish Youths Open, won by the likes of Paul McGinley and Martin Laird, scrapped after some 36 years.

The boys' championship will be staged the week before the European Tour’s Scottish Open which means its profile will be diminished amid the frenzy of other occasions during the peak season. Interestingly, the Scottish Boys' Strokeplay Championship has been switched from July to April which, on a first perusal, raises some eyebrows in terms of player development. Strokeplay, after all, is the bread and butter of championship golf, particularly in the professional game. Moving that back to a date when courses are still emerging from the winter and the weather may be dicier could be viewed as a bit odd at a time when many folk believe the emphasis on matchplay competition in the amateur game has a negative impact on those who harbour professional ambitions. The vagaries of these knock-out affairs, of course, means they have never been great pointers to future success. Andrew Coltart, who won the boys' matchplay title in 1987, remains the last under-18 champion to go on to win on the European Tour. Meanwhile, no Scottish men’s matchplay champion, since Stephen Gallacher in 1992, has scored a tour win either.

In these amalgamated times at the governing body, both the boys' and girls' events will be run concurrently, with the former at Scotscraig and the latter at Drumoig.

Instead of its usual straight knock-out format, the boys' contest will have a 36-hole strokeplay qualifier before the top 64 and ties qualify for the matchplay phase. The field too has been reduced to 180 from its usual 256 although, in recent years, the powers-that-be had struggled to fill that. This year, for instance, organisers fell 22 players short despite a handicap ballot of 8.6, which was considerably higher than it used to be.

The flagship Scottish Amateur Championship, meanwhile, has also been brought into line with other national events and will now have a 36-hole strokeplay qualifying element which, in some ways, should give a better reflection of the overall standard. It also means everybody is guaranteed at least two rounds. No more mad dashes from Golspie to Prestwick only to get walloped 8&7 before trudging back up the road again. All in all, then, some sensible changes.